Another Client Puzzle

[FlashLackey]

I guess I'm just not a fan of the tone that 'clients are out to screw you'. They are buyers and simply want a good deal. It's not their fault they have an entire business to worry about and would just prefer the web guy took care of the web page. We know it's not that simple but I'm still going to go out of my way to make the entire process enjoyable and rewarding.

I'm right with you on that. I don't have an anti-client attitude and my gut reacts the same when I see most anti-client posts here and elsewhere. This is just a rare, exceptional case where the problem doesn't come down to effort to give good service. Another layer to all of this is that I've already given this client breaks on prices, agreed to terms that were unusual and made us vulnerable, waived other charges that they "didn't expect", put in tons of free time consulting and planning projects for them, etc.

This time, it's a "fool me twice, shame on them. Fool me thrice, shame on you" situation.

The problem with clients is that they can always play dumb. But I don't believe they always are dumb...It's more that they're advantageous.

I think you hit the nail on the head here in regard to their strategy. Only one problem, this guy, before he started this company, worked in the web industry for 7 years! His last related job was as an art director. I don't see any way that he doesn't know perfectly well what things take, what is billable, etc.

If I was that client & you told me 2 weeks & 5 weeks went by, then, I, as the client would say "Whoa, what's going on here? Red flag!" - at which point I would be expecting to have to pay more, & would use logic to realize that extra time = extra money, but oopsie, there I go using "client" & "logic" in the same sentence.

I pointed this out to them in almost the same language. They had exclaimed something like "If I knew this was hourly, I would have brought the cost issue up 7 months ago!" I responded something like "if you thought we were exceeding the budget 7 months ago, the appropriate thing for you to do would be to bring it up then and come up with a fair solution. Not to watch us do 7 months of work while being silent about your intentions not to pay for it."

Good luck to you FlashLackey, I hope it all works out for you.

I appreciate it. It took a day or two. But, I'm past the emotional surprise and anger phases. Now, it's just another matter on the list of things to do. I offered them a deal with a reduced cost that would amount to us taking a loss on the work and they're still contesting things. They are about one email away from having me retract the reduced rate offer and having our lawyer send them a cease and desist.

Then surely the estimate was wrong? If so, the client is in the right and can only go off what you quote and advise.

The estimate was inaccurate. However, that is the definition of an "estimate." A value that may not be accurate. We didn't sell them an estimate. We sold them an hourly rated service and estimated that it would take a certain amount of time. As long as the client was aware of the change in scope (and they were) I don't see how you can put them "in the right."

[jAQUAN]

Agreed. There are days when I feel like wefail's mantra.

It pretty much comes down to proof of disclosure failure. If you can show the client an email clearly asking for environment variables to consider during development and if those answers/lack thereof caused the four phases estimate to apply to a technically different request then you are in the right.

If the client simply wasn't aware those things could cause an issue then you're stuck with either enforcing your rights and possibly losing a client or viewing this as a client learning experience which could make future work with them more profitable because of it.